Broncos survive late scare, down Blades 6-4
The Swift Current Broncos survived a late push from the Saskatoon Blades and won for the third time at the SaskTel Centre this season by a score of 6-4 on Friday night.
Swift Current fell behind early and fast as Blades forward Chase Wouters fired a low wrist shot from the high slot to put his club up 1-0 24 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Tyler Steenbergen and Colby Sissons replied for Swift Current with goals 36 seconds apart. Finnish forward Aleksi Heponiemi collected a turnover from the Blades behind their net and centered a pass to Steenbergen for his WHL leading 24th goal of the year. Sissons then put the Broncos ahead with a wrist shot from the point that went off the far post and in. Steenbergen and Heponiemi earned the assists on the power play goal from Sissons.
Goals continued to come as Heponiemi redirected a pass to the stick of Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin and he fired in his 12th marker to give Swift Current a 3-1 lead.
Braylon Shmyr cut into the Broncos lead, scoring on a rebound opportunity after Logan Flodell stopped a pair of initial shots off the stick of Wouters.
Heponiemi netted the Broncos fourth goal of the frame courtesy of a perfect wrist shot blocker high from the right point on yet another Swift Current power play.
Logan Foster capped off a nice tic-tac-toe play 14:18 into the second period for his first goal as a Bronco and first of his WHL career. Gawdin and Steenbergen were involved in the terrific passing play.
The Blades refused to roll over as Libor Hajek fired a low one-timer by Flodell, changing the Broncos lead from 5-2 to 5-3 with 6:44 remaining in regulation.
That was then followed up with another goal from Saskatoon on a power play chance from forward Michael Farren as he quickly hacked in the puck after the initial shot from Cameron Hebig was denied by Flodell.
Conner Chaulk took a late for cross checking but Swift Current displayed an effective penalty kill and it was none other than Chaulk that sealed the game late as the 20-year old slid in an empty netter seconds after he served the two-minute minor penalty.
Shots on goal were 33-22 in favour of Saskatoon. The Broncos went 2/4 on the power play while the Blades executed once on five man advantages.
Swift Current returns home to go battle the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Remembrance Day Theme Jersey Night on Saturday. Puck drop is at 7:00pm CT.
